The city of Jacksonville rolled out a mobile app and a trash-can mascot today as part of a new awareness campaign targeting urban blight.
The Fight Blight Initiative is the work of the City Council’s Special Neighborhood Blight Committee established two years ago by then-City Council President Bill Gulliford.
Blight is a huge problem, Gulliford says. One that, if left alone, could destroy the city one neighborhood at a time.
The MyJax mobile app (Apple App Store, Google Play Store) lets you take a picture of of problems like overgrown yards, abandoned cars, potholes and litter and report them to the city instantly.
App creator Paul Martinez with Jacksonville’s inter-governmental services department says it will eliminate a lot of confusion.
"People will call about dumping sites, and some a pick-up truck can pick up, and others it takes a dump truck to pick up," Martinez said. "So it makes it more efficient for government."
The Fight Blight initiative also has a mascot. A contest is underway for kids to come up with a name for the sneaker-wearing silver trash-can with a blue ball cap and a red cape.
There’s also a new website, coj.net/blight.
